Periodontal disease affects an estimated 200 million Americans. It can cause many patients to lose some or all of their natural teeth.

KVUE News

Kitten Wall examines her new teeth.

But a new dental procedure promises a new set of teeth in an hour and without stitches.

Kitten Wall has struggled with periodontal disease for most of her life.

"It's genetic, so I've been fighting it off and on ever since my mature days. Ever since I got out of baby teeth," she said.

Over time, she's lost most of her natural teeth. Until recently, her only option was to wear dentures.

"You can always feel it. That slows down your pronunciation right away, you get self conscious right away, and you either want to go the bathroom, take them out and re-glue them, or you're ready to go home," Wall said.

Earlier this year, Wall learned about a new alternative called Nobel-Guided surgery, or 'Teeth in an Hour.'

"It's a computer-based system, where we have the patient take a cat scan, we feed that information into our computer, we have a software that actually reconstructs is -- so we have a 3 dimensional image of it -- and essentially, we do our surgery on the computer," said Ronnie Vaughn, periodontist.

Surgeons then use the surgical guide to place the implants, eliminating the potential for human error and for stitches.

After about an hour, Wall has a new set of teeth. Doctors say Wall's surgery was a success and that she's adjusting well to her new teeth.

The Nobel Biocare dental implants are permanent. Each 'arch' costs between $20,000 and $25,000.